There's been a reasonable amount of talk of late in our fair left blogostan about how many of us lefties disdain money, distrust wealth and need to disabuse ourselves of our feelings of eat-the-rich
ressentiment if we are to hope to wholly share the values of our fellow citizens. SusanG ably wrote on this subject yesterday, while I've seen
Chris Bowers at mydd voice very similar things in the past as well.
But here's the thing: there's no problem with money. No lefty I know, and that includes me, is disdainful of money or the accumulation of wealth in and of itself. Hell, I work with money 45 hours a week for a Private Equity firm; I guarantee you, it's not money, or even wealthy people, I or many other lefties have a problem with.
What people have a problem with is a society which values the whims of accumulated Capital over an honest day's hard work. A society which incents us to seek rent rather than bear down and get something done. And above all, in a country where equality and justice for all is a value we all claim to hold dear, we rue what we really see: a society which promotes the use of the wealth one has amassed to buy access to our Democracy, to be slightly or significantly "more equal" than our fellow citizens, based on how much dough we've rolled up into our firms or our investments. The notion of "fair share" has been lost, as has the notion of "fair access": that's what we have a problem with.
Don't think we in the US value accumulated wealth over labor? Look at the tax code. Labor is taxed at marginal rates of over 40% for most middle class citizens (both sides of FICA/Medicare + typical marginal income tax rate middle income folks end up at). But the incomes of wealthy people with competent tax advisors are taxed at far lower rates: Long term capital gains are taxed at 18-20%, while dividend income is taxed at 15%. This is how it pays to be rich, relatively speaking, and how we value Capital over labor. The problem is not money, the problem is wealth which generates unreasonable and tax-advantaged rents, while labor is held hostage to the whims of shareholder value and under constant assault, on worker's rights to organize and stay organized, on a decent, living wage, on workplace safety. And what we do make is taxed at a higher rate than our shareholder bosses.
And for access, the ultimate access is the right to represent one's fellow citizens. But take a look at our representatives in the US Senate, Democrat and GOP alike. The lion's share are very very wealthy people. And god love 'em, many of the most progressive and worthy of our representatives are millionaires: Kerry, Rockefeller, Kohl, Dayton, Boxer, Cantwell, and Kennedy are all millionaires in the Senate alone, and Corzine was of course fabulously wealthy too. All good people and good Democrats (with some Irak war and other major exceptions to be sure). Paul Wellstone and Bernie Sanders are exceptions that prove the rule, but hopefully are a sign of the future.
In my book, this current state of affairs, of wealth favoring access, is a problem. As altruistic as one might be, wealth ultimately dictates class interest at a fundamental level and inserts policy Rubicons into a person's political beliefs that cannot possibly be crossed.
And until a rank-and-file citizen can reasonably expect that with talent and hard-work, he or she will have as much of a chance of getting to the Senate as any other citizen regardless of wealth, it's going to be damn hard to get reforms in place to help working people. In fact, it's going to be damn hard for the Congress to even reform itself, since the rich dudes running the place like it just the way it is, and so do their corporate sponsors.
Here's to hoping with kos and crew that new communications technology, TV/internet convergence and evolving blog-journalism will make it easier to end-run around these guys. But I think left blogosphere is the last place we want to be excusing this state of affairs. By all means, work hard and earn that well deserved money. But pay your fair share and respect equality before the law and before democracy.